This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/anime by /u/KaptainTZ on 2025-02-05 07:22:21+00:00.

I put first in quotes because most people have watched something like a Ghibli movie or a couple episodes of Dragon Ball when they were younger and didn’t even know what anime was. I’m not saying that you can’t consider Dragon Ball your “first” anime, but I think (hope) most people understand what I mean here.

My first anime was Naruto. Some kid at my YMCA summer camp raved about it enough for me to try it out when I got home. I had no idea what a piracy site was but I miraculously found the first ~140 episodes on YouTube in 480p… which I watched back to back to back. I think that was the first time I ever watched a TV series in chronological order on my own, and it was magical.

Like 8 years later was the summer of One Piece. I hadn’t watched any anime in between Naruto and One Piece, but the summer of One Piece was where my anime journey really began. That was the point of no return when I learned how to sail the seven seas just like Luffy.

My first non-shonen was watching Girls Bravo with the homies. That show is probably awful, I do not recommend it at all, but man did we love it back then.